SAN CLEMENTE, Calif. (AP) — Rescuers were unsuccessful in initial efforts to cut entangling gear from a gray whale calf traveling with its mother along the Southern California coast.
The calf was spotted Monday morning by the crew of a Captain Dave’s Dolphin and Whale Watching Safari vessel near the San Clemente Pier. The vessel contacted the National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration’s whale entanglement response team and the Pacific Marine Mammal Center.
Giselle Anderson of Captain Dave’s tells The Orange County Register that the baby appeared to be tangled in a float and line that went around its face and was possibly wrapped around a pectoral flipper.
The rescuers had to leave as the sun set.